TURA, March 18 � The one lakh plus population of Tura town is facing immense hardship following a major drop in water supply due to a breakdown of half of the pumping stations here since the last two weeks.
Three of the six pumping stations are no longer able to pump water to the reservoirs because they have crossed their life expectancy. The remaining three are barely able to operate at half its capacity since overhauling of the machines was long overdue.
Almost all localities of Tura town, barring the new colonies under Phase 3 water supply scheme, are experiencing acute water shortage for drinking and other domestic use with the hardest hit being the densely populated areas of Tura Bazar, Hawakhana, Ringre, Chandmari and its adjoining locations.
The Public Health Engineering department (PHE) which is tasked with the supply of water has been pursuing the matter of purchase of new pumps with the government for the last few years but sanction was allegedly delayed.
The main areas of the town, which includes the old localities and a major portion of the densely populated areas, is fed by the Phase I and Phase II water supply scheme of the PHE where the problem is presently faced.
Phase I is a gravitational force scheme operational in the monsoon season in which water from Rongkhon stream is directly dispatched to the reservoirs without any pumping mechanism. However, this gravitational scheme dries up during the peak summer season and the PHE has to move over to the pumping mechanism of Phase II water supply.
To cater to the demands of the consumers of Tura municipality, Phase II pumps the water from the Ganol river with the help of six pumping stations. Attempts are now being made to urgently repair one of the older pumping machines to ease the pressure on the remaining three.
Each of the machines were to pump water to the tune of 65 litres per second but presently discharge only 25 litres.
The total requirement of the town is 118,56,000 litres of water but the total output as of today does not cross 10 lakh litres.
Coupled with this problem is the frequent disruption in power supply that hampers the pumping capacity of the stations. Each time power fluctuation occurs it takes close to an hour for the pumps to restart the pumping mechanism.
With no end in sight to the water crisis and the peak summer season having only just begun the authorities are resorting to rationing of water.
